The Genesis Serpent Is Not Satan

[mick]

I read a cool article that talked about how the Genesis "Serpent" that tricked Eve could NOT have been Satan. And that Jewish scholars never thought this serpent was Satan who later showed up in Job. Only in Revelation is there a hint that that "ancient serpent" is Satan.

 

In Genesis God curses the Serpent to crawl along on his belly on the earth all the days of his life. That does not saound like Satan in Job or anywhere else in CHristian folk lore, unless God's curse utterly failed.

[RHEMtron]

I read a cool article that talked about how the Genesis "Serpent" that tricked Eve could NOT have been Satan. And that Jewish scholars never thought this serpent was Satan who later showed up in Job. Only in Revelation is there a hint that that "ancient serpent" is Satan.

 

In Genesis God curses the Serpent to crawl along on his belly on the earth all the days of his life. That does not saound like Satan in Job or anywhere else in CHristian folk lore, unless God's curse utterly failed.

exactly. we actually brought up this issue in this thread here:

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/index.php?showtopic=8723&st=20

 

here's what i said:

 

nowhere in the bible does it say the snake in the garden was satan. most christians assume that it is satan because that is what they are taught. the only reason why satan is believed to be the snake is because of this one line:

Revelation 20:2

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

 

christians assume "that old serpent," mean satan was the snake in the garden. they never think that serpent can refer to him being called a dragon.

 

if one actually uses their brain to read genesis, it says "the serpent was more crafty that any beast on the field," which indicates the snake was just an animal, who was just a little bit smarter. and again, if one keeps reading, it says that the snake was cursed by god "more than all cattle, and more than every beast on the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life;" if this was really satan, how was he able to walk up with jesus up the mountain? in Job, how was he able to go "to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it." if he was cursed to crawl on his belly all his days?

 

check it: Let's Take a Look at Satan

[Dhampir]

I think the better question would be: Hey, did you ever hear the one about how the serpent was satan?

[Kuroikaze]

I read a cool article that talked about how the Genesis "Serpent" that tricked Eve could NOT have been Satan. And that Jewish scholars never thought this serpent was Satan who later showed up in Job. Only in Revelation is there a hint that that "ancient serpent" is Satan.

 

In Genesis God curses the Serpent to crawl along on his belly on the earth all the days of his life. That does not saound like Satan in Job or anywhere else in CHristian folk lore, unless God's curse utterly failed.

 

yes, the conception of Satan that existis in christianity today did not exist in Judaism until 300-200 B.C.E. The only mention of that sort of satan in the OT was in the book of Daniel which is dated to have been written around then.

[HadouKen24]

I'd like to point out that during that time, Judaism was in close contact with the conquering Persians. And they were Zoroastrians. The Persian religion had a great evil deity just less powerful than the true God. An evil deity who would tempt you, and in general try to work against all things holy. And who would eventually be defeated at the coming of the Saoshyant.

[quicksand]

I had a couple of proselytizers visit me a few months ago. I said to them that I wasn't interested in their myths because they believed in talking snakes. Proselytizer #1 replied to me that it was ventriloquism – satan, apparently, was some kind of vaudevillian performer.

 

So, you see, Satan couldn't have really been a snake, just a flim-flam man.

[Young Mother Atheist]

Yes, the idea of Satan and even the idea of hell were later developments in either late Judaism or early Christianity. For hell or rather for death in the OT, people were said to have joined their brothers...

[AgnosticBob AtheistPants]

I had a couple of proselytizers visit me a few months ago. I said to them that I wasn't interested in their myths because they believed in talking snakes. Proselytizer #1 replied to me that it was ventriloquism – satan, apparently, was some kind of vaudevillian performer.

 

So, you see, Satan couldn't have really been a snake, just a flim-flam man.

 

 

Yep. So the poor little snake was used by Satan to deceive man...and God curses the snake for it! There's that loving, kind, gentle, forgiving GAWD we all know and love.